Tag: Software

The small bridges are a problem. Chenxiang is nimble enough to avoid all incoming damage via dash, as long as I make sure to spot incoming attacks in time. But he needs space to dance around enemies, especially when large numbers of them get close. This temple area consists of two halves connected by a bridge, and I’ve already taken damage twice while crossing, mainly because of my poor directional control. Thankfully, I’ve got a skill that sometimes leaches life when I take down enemies. And my character is an expert with his sword, dealing both direct damage to those he slashes and able to launch blue magic ones that actually track their targets. It takes around two minutes to deal with all the enemies and find the exit, which gives me three potential rooms to choose from. I pick the shop and cautiously decide to get extra healing. I clear a few more rooms, picking up improved fighting abilities and upgrades along the way before I engage the Tiger boss. He has pl...

My detective might be unfamiliar with the circus and its unique language, but he can spot when someone is lying. I’m currently interviewing Rolf, who loves animals and doesn’t mind paying other people’s bar tabs, trying to understand why he is lying to protect another of the performers and whether his calm appearance conceals the potential for violence. I push him as far as possible before leaving the stables, with some answers but also a couple of new questions. I have one action left and I use it to explore the fair location, which yields exactly one interesting observation that’s added to my list of topics. The game then switches to the magician, and she has a different set of priorities as well as some insights the detective lacks. I get her to start a conversation with Aideen, the fire-breather. She was best friend to dead Hattie and was featured in her knife-throwing act so she should be able to shed more light on social interactions and connections. If all g...

Should I go for the Power Orb, which would give my character mana and a chance to launch more attacks before the end of the turn? Or is it a better idea to avoid all enemy attacks by using my entire movement reserve? I chose the latter. I already dealt a lot of damage this turn, and I want to preserve my health, even if it means a longer fight. The constantly shrinking combat area can be a problem with this strategy. All enemy attacks miss but they crowd around me, meaning my avatar can smash and eliminate one of them and then bonk two skeletons with targets on their heads. I also activate a shield, a useful bit of protection, and pick up another power orb. But my main foe, Janus the Malformed, will reach me with an area-of-effect attack. A few demon heads spawn and I start to think that trading some movement range for extra attack wasn’t a great idea. A few bonks and a jumping strike destroy more skeletons. But there are enough left that I will only have 2 hit poi...

The yak are taking up too much damn space. I like them, might herbivores willing to do hard work at altitude, but I don’t have the extra tiles to give them on the lower slopes of this mountain. I could put down more pastures, but it would involve uprooting a significant part of my population. I’m starting to understand that even the lowlanders might need to learn to live higher up, while I dedicate the more fertile area to resource production. I need to put down some barley fields to get people some ale. At least the need to protect everyone from avalanches means I have the foresters required to provide trees that will get turned into charcoal. Building this high up, using small patches of suitable land, is a challenge. I need plenty of carts and a lot of artisans to move things around and it’s getting harder to find opportunities to increase efficiency. But as long as my monetary flow is positive, there’s still some space to expand into. Laysara: Summit Kingdom i...

Based on the launch trailer, Shines Over: The Damned promised to be a walking simulator with a dark atmosphere and horror elements, with a particularly gloomy atmosphere. Being a fan of this kind of game I couldn’t wait to try it. But after I have finished it I am still wondering where is the game that I expected.   There are short games out there. Some of them are lacking story or feature wise, some of them work as stocking fillers for the holidays and some of them are memorable experiences. And then there is Shines Over: The Damned, that would deserve its own category. I have played demos that lasted longer and were free. The shock was so big after finishing my first playthrough of the game that almost immediately I booted it up again. I was not sure if I missed something, if this production was so abstract and subtle that perhaps I needed more time to find the essence well-hidden by the developer. After an unusually long struggle I have arrived at the conclusion...

I’ll leave the green poison lobbers last, mainly because while their throws cover the distance to my avatar, they are actually hitting the cliffs above. So, I’m safely ignoring them as I move from a door to an open space, targeting two flying snake-like creatures and some robots with weapons where their heads should be. Their projectiles are pretty accurate, so I have to keep moving to avoid damage. Once I’ve finished them off, I go back to the tunnel I came through, picking up a vial of health to bring me back to 100 and a few shards of armor. I notice I haven’t explored one branch of this area and do so, wielding my shotgun to eliminate a few fast-moving fangs that burst out of sarcophagi to attack me. I could have used my trusty wrist blade to conserve some ammo. Unfortunately, blasting them at point-blank range just feels too good. I push forward over the ice bridge and enter another cramped section of tunnels, taking out enemies left and right. I don’t take ma...

It’s the laser beams that get me most of the time. I know there’s a color change that signals when they are about to fire but I often have my hands full with dozens of robot enemies, all ready to launch their own attacks. Often, I only spot the beam when the screen flashes because Mia, the character I’m controlling loses some of her precious health. So I do my best to focus on the laser’s origin, a fixed emplacement that typically spawns with the second opponent wave. I dash around it, keeping to the beat as much as I can, to clear some space and then launch a flurry of kicks and axe attacks. I could also deliver an Ultimate but that feels like overkill considering that this is just one enemy. Once it’s down I turn and face the melee group that quickly closes on me. Mia enters Tanzrausch while dealing with them, becoming a blur of robot-destroying attacks. Unfortunately, I whiff a dash and she’s out of the flow state, scrambling to move away from a series of area-o...

I pushed the tank too far ahead of my main force. Shermans might be plentiful and relatively reliable in battle but this one crumpled pretty fast when ambushed by both a Panzer IV and a classic anti-tank gun. I think I can save it next turn and replenish its crew after that but it might require drawing fire with other units, which might lead to losses that I don’t really need. Some good spotting from my own scouts means I can direct both my self-propelled artillery to strike at two Nazi infantry squads that were busy using buildings as cover to launch an ambush on my own advancing squads. A machine gun team then eliminates the first of them but my own G.I.s fail to take out the second. The Germans reveal a few surprises during their own turn. They push forward not one but two tanks, which is an issue given that I lack suitable defenses in that corner of the village. They also have some indirect fire, probably mortars, that accurately strike my infantry. So, I use m...

The cultists have been getting smart. They once stood out in the open and in groups, almost begging someone to end their chain-smoking misery. Now they tend to gather only indoors, with sentries on the perimeter, and they no longer have as many cars parked in convenient spots. It’s getting harder to fire just one bullet and take down eight or nine of them, even when that shot is powered by telekinesis. It now takes time simply to spot all the cultists, despite their shiny nature. Sometimes I have to fire a shot that I know will not reach its target to use as a way to scout a building or test whether I can bend around a certain space. I feel bad doing this because the entire ethos of the game is to fire one bullet and clear an area. But it is important to do whatever it takes to cull this cult. After a half dozen failed attempts, The Girl knows where all her enemies are, and I have a clear idea of the order in which they need to expire. I line up the shot to take ou...

There is a long running commentary on how most AAA games lost their soul and got rotten to the core. While the behavior of publishers and recent releases support this point of view more and more, the image of independent game as white knights with radiant hearts that will save the game industry have tarnished as well. Yet, with a bit of luck you can still find a few gems in the unstoppable wave of hundreds of indie titles released every month.  Monnglow Bay is such a rare find. It is not by any means perfect, but it is the embodiment of the indie game spirit that promises to swap you away to a place of dreams. Every day starts with the sun shining in the sky, with people putting their best feet forward and with every cast of the rod hooking a fish. And although underneath all we will find layers of lethargy and even tragedy, the inhabitants of Moonglow Bay are a resilient bunch who do not accept the idea of giving up. The best example is the character you choose to...